In order to get the Steam version to not crash in the prologue I had to torrent an iso of the retail CD version (which runs even worse), install the fan made patch (which isn't compatible with the Steam version because BS legal reasons, or at least the patch I found), play past the tutorial, and then copy the save to my Steam directory. It's been said that the GoG version is better so do with that info what you will, I myself am a masochist. If you're tech illiterate, then you're best off just getting the Xbox version, and I don't mean that in a demeaning way, this game is a ♥♥♥♥♥ to run on modern machines and you have to really want to play it. On top of all that I was never able to prevent it from crashing whenever I hit the windows key or alt+tab, so good luck if you want to play this with other processes in the background.

With that said I'm giving the game a recommendation anyway because it's a truly fantastic hidden gem. Seamless blend of detective mystery puzzle solving and survival horror FPS. The game is linear but every environment is dense and worth exploring inch by inch. I don't usually read things like the journal logs, but the mythos was so engrossing that I read every single one and tried to not miss any on my first playthrough. Some of the puzzles towards the end of the game can be obscure, not everyone will have the patience for that, but if you played adventure games from the 90's onward you'll be comfortable with the challenge. The combat is not especially deep, but there's a surprising amount of weapon and enemy variety to keep you engaged and looking for ammo. I wouldn't say I was scared for most of the experience, but there were some startling moments that made me jump and shake to the point where I couldn't aim (If you find deep ocean stuff scary then there's a boat section that will make you ♥♥♥♥.) The only real negatives I can call out is that the game is just overall janky. It lacks a lot of polish like bigger budgeted games from the same era, but if you aren't a total ♥♥♥♥♥ then it won't be a problem.

I wanted to get a positive rating up because if you look at the negative reviews you'll notice most of them are just because the game takes some effort to get running. I'm not saying paying for a product that you should then bend over backwards to get functional should be normalized, but I am saying there's a good product here despite that.